Brumby of the Wind
by echosdusk
Summary: The tale of Kareela, a colt of Baringa's that is neither silver or eager. His journey to growing up & making it to old age is beginning, but the Southern Region is riddled with jealous & dangerous stallions, but beautiful mares. Will it be worth it all?


Part One: Not Silver, Not Gold 

Among the wild horses of the southern mountain regions of Australia, there were many strains from famous horses that were known only to their own kind, with of course a few exceptions known to man. Of these exceptions was a line of creamy coloured animals that stemmed from three main animals, known to the horses alone had been the parents, Yarraman of the Cascades and his creamy mare Bel Bel. But from both of these grand and wise parents, had come a wise, courageous, and cocky colt of a light creamy shade but a mane and tail of silver like the spray of a waterfall. This colt had grown fast into the Silver Brumby, a ghost horse to man because of his man escapes and magnificent bounds, but to the horses he was both flesh and mystery, known for the wind, Thowra.

From Thowra's many flirtatious tricks amongst mares of other herds within his territories and amongst the realm of his offspring and wanderings, came many strong and powerful horses, true to the fame of the Silver Brumby, though some had almost no encounters with the human kind as the world around their secret ways developed and renewed. Of his fillies only one is spoken of, and even she is spoken of with her black mate alone, Kunama, the snow. Kunama had encountered man on a close level, that of being born in their company with her mother Golden, and that of being captured and partially tamed. But from her and her mate Tambo had come the greatest next to Thowra himself, that of Baringa, and it is of one of the Southern King's foals that our tale will follow, a colt unlike his grander siblings and fellows that was never looked at by other horses as grand, save his dam and sire.

The southern lands of the main ranges were filled with a variety of Brumby coat patterning and colour, within recent years though it had fanned out to the basics as fewer blood from human owned animals was being found with the introduction of the Main Range Highway and the removal of most men from the ranges. In the southern lands there were still Brumby runs and humans on ranches, but these were privately bought and used all the time. The runs were only used as a way to remove numbers, those caught were bought and trained, or culled in private. The regions of the Pilot and Quambat, as well as the main rivers of the Ingegoodbee, Murray, and Moyangul were protected areas, mainly used for tourism though horses still wandered and the occasional round-up took place. It was here though that Baringa ruled, and here that the rumours of Thowra's disappearance came and the ruling beasts were saddened.

* * *

"He was ageing, but at least he had one last adventure northward before he was to disappear completely. You knew that it was coming, that had been why you, your father, and Lightning had felt the urge to head north and greet him one last time. Do not despair, its what he would have hated." Dawn nickered softly to her creamy master one afternoon upon the grasses of the Quambat after the Gang-gangs had streamed overhead singing of the living whirlwind in the north. But it had not comforted the palomino king, he had loved his grandfather greatly and learnt so much from him, been so loved in return by him. Since the winter had disappeared he had been sad, though he had brought the mares and foals to play upon the fresh grasses of the southern flat.

His nose turned in the warm breeze to the dimming crispness of the ice-water from the creek. Then it turned to the Cremello mare, silver mane and white body, that he had spent so much time with and fought so hard to protect, and he nuzzled her softly along the neck, almost as if he were apologising. His sorrow was going to linger for some time yet, but at least he could take the time to observe the little beasts and the older beasts that pranced through his herd and among that of his dear uncle's.

Since the fight with the Black Stallion of the Limestone three years ago, the two creamy males had grown to relax around each other, Baringa had no fear of Dawn being stolen or even Moon to be harassed by the son of Thowra. They had grown close like brothers, even with the sorrow of the great beast's disappearance, they had still been close and made some comfort for the other. But today Lightning was not grazing near Cloud's old post but instead he was closer to the rims of the dipped valley, possibly looking at young mares. After all, it was spring once more and the urges of most stallions coaxed them forward to search about, but Baringa had not needed to fight for a year at least, his herd already had a few newer mares and more foals this year then he was used to.

* * *

Dawn had not foaled this year, she still held a yearling filly to her side that was nervous of joining in the games of her siblings. The blue roan mare that Thowra had presented to him as a gift, Elandra, had also not foaled to him this year, but her previous foal had already started to show signs of wandering with the bachelor colts, even at the age of a yearling. His other cremello mares, the timid Moon, had lost most of her shyness with the years and had a new colt that was quite chunky in build, grazing at her side, whilst the chubby and jolly mare, Bambri, had a yearling cremello filly foal to keep an eye on. This filly was just as jolly and bold, but as Thowra had been with his own mother, Baringa had feared the filly's boisterous nature in case any harm might come to her. There were also his three new mares, one was a bay of a very petite build but bright colouring, which had a brand new bay foal at her hip, a chestnut mare with a star that was eyeing her yearling bronze-chestnut colt foal as he wobbled about playfully, and his other mare, a buckskin daughter of Son of Storm, a sister to Yarolala had a buckskin yearling colt bounding around. With the news of Thowra's disappearance, Baringa also owned Koora, and Cirrus, Mist, and Cloud had all wandered away from the flat, possibly to seek life away from the herds and await their own ends, they were ageing too. But of all his mares and foals, it was Yarolala's that he was most interested in.

At Yarolala's heels was a young colt of a rich chestnut and flaxen shade that pranced about joyfully but stumbled often and was the subject to bullying from his yearling siblings and the other foals of the herds. He was a yearling almost, and he was fast but a little clumsy as he tried to do as his father did. He was called Kareela for the South Wind, but he was not as fleet as the name could suggest. Often he acted as a foal, clinging to the waist of his fast mother and nickering his sorrow at the nips and sores from the bullies. He was smart, but afraid to act in such a manner and that had the possibility to get him into trouble with the humans that came every summer to check out the herds and remove animals that might be useful for riding or easier to tame, and Kareela's gentle nature would make him a clear target.

It was not that Yarolala was a bad mother, indeed her two-year-old daughter had already joined a grand chestnut stallion along the Moyangul regions not far from Stockwhip, in regions that Baringa had once traversed. But it was this colt that made Baringa ponder greatly, he liked Kareela because the colt would come to him and question him on interesting things, and he learnt fast, but Kareela was not an animal suited for the open life where he would never be safe. Once the summer had ended of course, Baringa would consider leading him in the way Thowra had taken him, and then finding somewhere fresh that the chestnut would not be harmed.

* * *

So, after Dawn's kind words and his quick observation to see if there were animals about he might have to teach a lesson to, Baringa trotted toward Yarolala. Once at her side where she grazed on the creek edge and then sucked away at the cool water, Baringa and the chestnut granddaughter of Yarraman rubbed muzzles and then turned to look at the young male that was watching his siblings. Kareela would not join in the play today, he was too afraid of being hurt again to risk it all, but he wanted to see what they were doing. Today it was a game of rough fights and chasing. There was no hint of soft dancing, which Kareela joined in happily and impressed all with, it was just games where he would be beaten. Baringa noted this, and nickered softly to the colt, which was neither gold in colour or held a hint of silver to his mane like his mother did.

"Come over here, Kareela." Baringa whickered gently, and at first the colt jumped nervously and turned around to face what might be a threat. Yet at the sight of his father, Kareela quickly hurried closer and snuffled at his father timidly, what was wanted of him.

"Aren't you going to join in with the other foals and play?" The great stallion questioned, but the colt shook his head and snorted in slight nervousness. "Then what will you do with your youth? Growing up is not enjoyable, and as a stallion you will have to learn to fight with many varied opponents. Don't you know how to fight?"

"I know very little. I can't learn the moves if someone is beating me blind." Kareela snorted irritably. At this Baringa shook his head and felt quite sorrowful for the youngster, even he knew how to fight at a yearling, that had been when he'd been to Quambat. But he had learnt to fight from Thowra's keen moves, and Lightning's clumsiness down amongst Whiteface's herd at Stockwhip. Perhaps that was all the colt needed to have a little more confidence, if he learnt to fight or at least to dodge the attacks, then at least he might have a chance to gain mares in the future. So Baringa snorted gently in reply.

"Then follow me and I will teach you." He then turned and nickered to Yarolala to tell Lightning that he was going to be away for the rest of the afternoon. Then he looked to Kareela, who beamed at him with wide eyes and a twitching nose. They headed off in the direction of the nearest point near the Murray River. It would be quite a trot but he did not have to worry about the colt keeping up. At least there, the herds knew of him but were always eager to fight. Maybe Baringa would find an old enemy or a new one to have a wrestle with, maybe he would find a new filly for his herd or Lightning's, or maybe even Dilkara's, or perhaps even Kalina if he were to see the colt again. Though it seemed and odd thought to him at the time, Baringa thought that he could possibly even bring back a filly for this young son or for his other yearlings sons. Perhaps he should even invite them along.

So the great creamy king of the south paused and called out for his buckskin son, both a brother and cousin to Kareela, named Matong to come with them. The dark colt lifted his head to the great stallion that had sired him, with a high squeal of delight the bigger and stockier colt with a lot of strength cantered over. He pressed close to his sire but ignored Kareela, often amongst the youngsters he was the biggest bully of all. Then another colt, Paratyi, the bronze colt from one of his newest mares came bounding over, always eager to follow his gold and black brother into any challenge. Eagerly Baringa nickered at him to stand close and be prepared, they were all tall colts and good looking, but he was quite surprised when his palomino roan son, the colt from Elandra, Walipuku came trotting over nervously nickering to be allowed to come along too. So with a snort once all the colts were at his side, Baringa began to trot off toward the waters where he might find herds to inspect and observe, the colts would learn a few lessons from him by the time they returned to the herd.

**

* * *

** _I have been in long conversations for years about the true colourations of the colours of these animals. Thanks to my Australian companion, Penni, I have a lot of knowledge and we have determined that Dawn and Moon are actually Cremello, explaining the white colouration and white mane and tail. You' ll note too that I've joined Koora to Baringa's herd, and named the blue roan mare "Elandra" and the white mare, who is also a Cremello, "Bambri", and I have added a few mares of my own. _


End file.
